Posts tagged workers

Amazon's Mechanical Turk service is all about using humans to perform computer-like tasks, such as identifying objects and transcribing videos. However, those workers are tired of being treated like automatons -- they've launched an email campaign urging Amazon chief Jeff Bezos to market Mechanica...

If your firm, like Microsoft, was preparing huge layoffs, you'd expect a sweet incentive to leave, like a fat check, or the right to rob the stationery cupboard guilt-free. For workers at a former Nokia factory in China, however, the reward on offer's a little less than spectacular. MarketWatch is...

Sure, the French have it sweet with a 35 hour work week and five+ weeks of paid vacation. But (Mon dieu!) workers there are still bombarded with job-related emails when off the clock. Almost a million of them won't need to put up with such rude intrusions anymore, though. A legally binding deal si...

Remember when Apple and Foxconn pledged to improve working conditions, increase wages and limit work weeks to 60 hours? Turns out they're still working on that. According to a recent investigation by China's Fair Labor Association, Hon Hai Precision (Foxconn's official name) is "not in compliance"...

On the face of it, Samsung's latest report on working conditions at the factories of its Chinese suppliers follows just the kind of careful, lawyer-scrutinized language we'd expect from a big multinational. It repeats the manufacturer's earlier insistence that no children have been employed, while...

We're very familiar with Kopin's Golden-i, but it was surprising that an early collaboration with Motorola Solutions didn't immediately lead to Motorola selling the head-mounted computer on its own. That odd discrepancy is being patched up now that Motorola Solutions' HC1 is here. The design keeps...

Most tours of Chinese factories at least give workers a heads-up that they'll be on camera. Not so the exposé that HP inadvertently gave one of its Swedish customers. Reddit user Malplace opened a new laptop to find that a 3-minute webcam video of the factory floor at HP's contractor, Quant...

The Fair Labor Association has announced the first results of its Foxconn investigation. The report documents more than 50 violations or policy gaps including excessive overtime, unpaid wages and low salaries that can't cover the workers' basic necessities. The results in this report came from ...

TUAW has gotten word that protestors are planning at assemble at some Apple Stores in Washington, DC's Georgetown, New York City, and San Francisco this Friday, presumably in anticipation of the new iPad's release.
These campaigns are being run from Change.org by Mark Shields, who sounds reaso...

While protesters are targeting the Chinese Foxconn plants that make iPads and iPhones, the first report from the Fair Labor Association (FLA) indicates that they may want to start focusing their attention on other manufacturing plants. The comments were made in a Reuters article today highlighting...

Apple had a few issues with its suppliers this year and has published its annual Supplier Responsibility Progress Report today. The company has apparently schooled more than a million "supply chain employees" on rights and health and safety, while it has also began a specific environmental complian...

The welfare of Chinese workers is back in the spotlight after an explosion at Shanghai-based Riteng Computer Accessory Company left 23 people in hospital with burns and another 34 with more minor injuries. Local government officials said the explosion happened on Saturday afternoon at a workshop ...

We saw this coming when we met FRIDA, and now it's apparently happening. According to Xinhuanet, Foxconn's founder and chairman chose a workers' party last Friday night to reveal plans for a surge in the company's robot contingent. There'll be 300,000 robots in operation by next year and a swarm-...

Protesters are planking outside a Foxconn shareholder meeting to demand higher wages and voice their dissatisfaction with the company's treatment of its employees. Planking is a trendy new activity that involves people laying face down on the ground with arms by their side for fun, or in this c...

It's been a few months since we checked in on the workers at Wintek, where they manufacture touchscreens for the likes of Apple. As you might remember, the former company was facing a lawsuit for chemical poisoning that occurred between May 2008 to August 2009 when the company substituted alcohol f...

French journalist and photographer Jordan Pouille revisited a Foxconn factory in Longhua, China and reported on factory conditions in the wake of a highly publicized pay raise for its Chinese workers. This pay raise came in response to criticism over a rash of suicides occurring at this Longhua fact...

137,000 iPhones per day. That's how many manufacturer Foxconn is reportedly making these days, its chairman tells the press. That's an amazing figure adding up to 50 million iPhones every single year, even as Apple struggles to keep enough hardware in stock. And the process isn't easy, either -- ch...

The recent issues at Foxconn haven't actually slowed the company down, apparently -- it has announced that it will be hiring 400,000 more workers at new plants in China, thanks to a 50 percent increase in revenue lately. The total number of people working at Foxconn will be estimated at 1.3 million...

After all of the trouble last week at Foxconn, the Chinese factory suffering from worker suicides, rumor has it that Apple is stepping up to increase wages at the plant by paying workers directly. A Chinese website claims that Apple may eventually pay workers as a percentage of product sales, tho...

The problems that have emerged in China at one of Foxconn's largest factories continue -- with reports this morning that an eleventh person has fallen from a building there, making him the ninth person to die there this year. Foxconn's CEO Guo Tai-ming yesterday released a statement to the Chinese ...